Break Time
by Mizz Blackshaw
Summary: After all of the changes with the swim club (Makoto and Haruka graduating, training the new recruits, and preparing for the first competition), Nagisa still manages to schedule a study session with Rei. But with every session needs a well-deserved break. No spoilers, shipping involved.


Break Time

"Are you coming over, Rei?" Nagisa asked. "I could really use your help studying." The two were barely finished with practice for the evening. Rei imagined that, after training the newcomers, he'd be exhausted, but there was no rest whenever it came to academics. After all, Nagisa still held his end of the promise. As long as he got good grades, his parents let him stay in the swim club.

But another thing shocked Rei. "You're inviting me to _your_ place?" He asked as soon as they went into the locker room.

"No one will be home."

"No one?" He laughed as he adjusted his glasses. "I find that highly unlikely since you have such a big family."

He looked up to think. "My sisters have night classes except for Nanako. She has work and so does Dad. And Mom's going to visit her mom. I told her I'll be here late, so we'd have the whole place to ourselves. And guess what!"

"What?"

"I bought popcorn and strawberry pocky! What do you say?"

"I would've said yes a while ago, but now I'm even further convinced that this will be a fantastic night." He smiled.

"Hey, is there a meeting at Captain Hazuki's place?" One of the first-years, Tetsuya, asked.

"Do we have to bring something?" Shin, a second-year, asked.

"I thought we had a meeting earlier this week." Ryohei, another first-year, mentioned.

Nagisa waved his hands in front of him. "No, no, guys! Don't worry about it! There's no meeting."

"Thank goodness." Shin sighed. "Well, it was a nice practice anyway. I'll see you guys later."

"Captain Ryugazaki, do you think I can swim next time?" Ryohei asked.

"You'll have to ask Gou." He said with a shrug. "She's in charge of the line-up. Anyway, we'll meet tomorrow at the usual time."

They said their goodbyes, finished up all the last-minute duties, and were on their way. The whole train ride, Nagisa was staring at Rei. There was a reason why he sat across from him instead of being by his side. He slowly loosened his tie while keeping his eye on him. Rei, on the other hand, was busy reading as he does on most trips.

"Rei…" Nagisa whispered to him. "Rei…!"

"What is it?" He asked, not looking up.

"What are you reading?" He snaked his way to the other side and peaked at the page.

"Oh, it's nothing you'd be interested in…" He said. " _After Dark_ by Haruki Murakami."

"Sexy." He snickered to himself. "I didn't know you read those books, Rei."

"This isn't _that_ kind of book!" He blushed. "It's only titled _After Dark_ because the story takes place after dark. Nothing risqué about it."

"Sure, sure."

Rei frowned and was about to argue further, but their stop came up. His heart skipped a beat when he remembered he was going to Nagisa's house for the first time. This time, he was following him home instead of the other way around.

"It's not too far off." He kept saying.

When they got there, the first thing Rei noticed was the overly decorated entrance. There were pictures and paintings everywhere. He took off his shoes and stepped into the living room. "Your place is amazing."

"Thanks. My mom likes to buy art and flags from every country the family visits." He said.

"And what countries did you visit?"

"Japan…and Japan." He laughed. "Mom did most of her travels before I was born." He took his hand and brought him to the bedroom.

"It looks like a picture from a magazine." Rei gasped at how neat everything was.

Nagisa shrugged and threw his backpack onto his bed. "I don't see it."

Rei looked around and took a seat at the corner desk. "So, let's get started."

"Alright!" He took out his books and spread out all over the floor.

"Are you sure you don't want to sit down?" He said already getting off the chair.

"No, no! You sit. I'd rather be on the floor anyway."

Rei only snickered and began studying. And as he expected, it wasn't long until Nagisa lost focus. He could see from the corner of his eye when Nagisa snatched a throw blanket from the bed and wrapped himself into a burrito. "Are you cold?"

"No, I just think it's soft." He smiled sheepishly. "Look! I'm a worm!"

"How are you already so unfocused? We just started!"

He sighed loudly. "I made the mistake of starting with math first. The first question was easy, but then it got complicated."

"Do you need help?"

"No, I just need to work harder." He put on some jazz music before getting back to his homework. It actually kept him concentrated for over an hour.

Since it was quiet for a while, Rei had to check up on him. "How's it going?"

"Almost finished. I just need to do one more page." He straightened up. "How about a break?"

"Okay." Rei stood up to stretch his legs.

"Here, lay down on the bed." He said.

"Why?"

"Because we're taking a break." He said as if it were obvious. "Come on. When's the last time you lied down?"

He shrugged and settled down as he said. Nagisa squeezed in next to him. "Nagisa, this bed is hardly big enough for both of us."

"Really?" He shuffled around and slid on top of him. "I hadn't noticed."

"What are you doing?"

"Just taking a break." He rested his head on his chest. "No big deal."

"No big deal? You're on top of me!"

Nagisa closed his eyes and enjoyed being on top of his friend. The rhythmic breathing relaxed Rei enough to close his eyes too. That was until he felt something warm on his neck. He gasped and saw that was only his teammate kissing him tenderly.

"N…Nagisa…what are you doing?"

"Just…taking a break." He continued. "Just chillin'."

"Is that what we're calling it?" He giggled as he moved further up to his jaw. "Okay, let's get back to work." He patted his back.

"Just a few more minutes…" He kept kissing him.

"Nagisa, aren't we going to talk about this? We didn't even share a hint of sexual attraction towards each other and suddenly, you're kissing my neck?"

He popped up to show him his confused face. "What do you mean 'not a hint'?" He mocked him. "We've been hugging and holding hands since we've met. Pfft! Not a hint." He laughed before going back to Rei's neck.

"But why me? Why today? You never even said…"

"Why do I need to say that I like you? I thought this would be enough." He said. "Besides, I just want to do this for a while."

"Just my neck?"

"For now…"

"Okay." He relaxed again. This time his hand moved lower down his back. "When will we go back to our work?"

"We don't have to…"

"Nagisa…"

"Alright!" He got up with exasperation. "But next time, I'm going to be done a lot quicker."

"Don't rush through your work. We'd be in the same situation as last year."

He shrugged. "I just want more sweet time with you." He blew him a kiss and went back to work. The rest of the time, Rei wondered if he was serious or not.

The next day, Nagisa convinced Gou to end practice early. He said it was to get a head start on studying, which was true, but he also said that he had a big test coming up, which was not so true. This time, they met at Rei's house. It was pretty much the norm to meet there, so his parents expected them.

Nagisa hurried to get his backpack out and dump whatever papers and books needed to be studied. "Slow down, Nagisa. Are you trying to get everything wrong?" Rei laughed.

"Of course not. I'm doing everything with careful consideration…but just faster." He said, not missing a mark.

Rei shrugged and kept doing his work. This time, it was a little less than an hour when Nagisa declared Break Time. "Why am I not surprised? I should've known Break Time would be the perfect incentive to get you focused on your studies."

"And you're right!" He patted the bed. "Unless you don't want to do it anymore."

Rei shrugged and followed suit. "I do have to admit that I love the feeling you give me." The weight of his body on top of his, the gentle smooches, and his overall warmth was therapeutic for him.

"Really?" Nagisa asked as his friend got into position. "I like the feeling you give me too." He went straight away to his neck. "How about this?" He moved towards his ear and started nibbling on it.

"I think…" He stifled his laughter. "I think this does _not_ qualify as 'just chilling'."

"It does to me."

"Nagisa, you're just making a meal out of me…"

"Because you're so sweet!"

He settled down, but the tickly feeling at his neck didn't make it easy. He let him kiss and bite at his neck. He didn't know what to do with his hands, so he stroked his back. But then he paused when he felt an unfamiliar stiffness between them. "Stop!" He gripped the other's shirt. "Get off."

"Why? What's wrong?"

Rei sat up and gently shoved Nagisa out of the way. "Nothing, it's just…" He sighed and buried his face into his hands. "Nagisa, this may be easy for you, but it's not for me."

"What?"

"This!" He pointed to his neck. "You have to tell me what this means, because I don't know."

He didn't answer. Even after Rei waited for almost a minute, Nagisa grabbed his stuff and headed for the door. "Tomorrow, I'll have the place to myself. When you come over, I'll tell you, okay?"

Rei nodded.

But the next day, Rei didn't go with him straight after practice. Nagisa dragged his feet to the front door, looked around for a while, and went inside. He started his homework in the family room, which was a lot emptier. At least it gave him time to think.

Nagisa wasn't much for romance. Now he knew Rei was. What he didn't know was how he could get Rei what he wanted. There was no way he could be as suave as he was overnight. Breaking him out of his thoughts was a knock on the door.

"Rei! You came!" Nagisa cheered.

"I thought I'd pick up a few snacks." He held up a bag. "Strawberry pocky?"

"Yes, please!" He reached for it, but Rei pulled it away.

"Not so fast. You'd have to do something for me first." He cocked his head towards the bedroom.

Nagisa looked back and gasped. "You want to start off with Break Time?"

"I figured that if I'm going to get what I want, I'd have to give you what you want. So…"

"Wait… What do you want exactly? I want to make sure I give you the right thing."

"Answers. I want answers and plenty of them." He said. "Now, let's get to it."

He was about to head to the bedroom, but Nagisa stopped him. "No." He said. "I've been thinking about it since yesterday. So if you really want to talk, let's talk."

They sat down on the couch. It took some time for him to get started, so Rei encouraged him. "Go ahead."

Nagisa swung his leg over him so that he was sitting on Rei's lap, facing him. Then he whispered in his ear "I'm not good at talking, but I can tell you that I want to do this…" He kissed his neck. "And I want to do this…" He nibbled his ear. "And I want to do this…" He made his way to his lips. "I'll go as fast or as slow as you like."

Rei licked his lips. He never thought the first person to touch it would be a person of the same gender. But he should've known that Nagisa would behave like this. He was always the one to dodge his feelings. And since neither of them knew the answers, they figured it out through experiment. Rei gently set him down on the couch and kissed him back. Since they weren't good with words, their actions were invitation enough. Eventually, they went into Nagisa's bedroom. The sun decoration that was on the wall fell behind the bed as soon as it hit against it. Nagisa clawed at Rei's shirt, trying to pull it off, but Rei made sure it stayed on.

"We should go back to studying." He said.

"Too fast?" Rei's shirt slowly slipped from his grip. "Should we slow down?"

"Well…it's only Break Time, which means it ends so we can get to work."

Nagisa watched him get up and make his way to the door before calling him to stop. "Rei, wait!"

Already midway through, Rei turned. "What?"

Nagisa bit his lips as he smiled seductively. "I love you." Then he sprang off of the mattress and latched himself onto his torso. He hung on and kissed him again.

Rei wobbled a bit as he carried him a few steps, but they ended up toppling over. He crawled over to grab his glasses. "You're too much." He laughed. "But…I love you too." He gave him an awkward smile, but that only gave Nagisa permission to pounce again.

* * *

Students rejoiced while other moaned as they received their test grades. The teacher handed them back one by one. When he got to Nagisa's desk, he put the paper face down. Nagisa looked him in the eyes for any signs of disappointment or praise, but the teacher's face remained focused on his task. Once he was away from his desk, Nagisa peaked at the other side. His heart dropped when the first thing he saw was "Come see me after class." He took a deep breath and kept the paper turned over until all the students were gone.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" He asked.

The teacher adjusted his glasses, stood up to look out the window, and stayed there to collect his thoughts. "I was rather…surprised when I looked over your exam." He said, stroking his chin. "Math usually isn't your best subject, but…this…" He heard Nagisa sigh sadly. "Don't be too hard on yourself. There was no way you could've done any better." He turned around. "Your grade has improved so much in these last few weeks alone!"

Surprised, Nagisa flipped his paper. It was a perfect score. "Holy…! I thought I did horribly!"

"Far from it! If you keep this up, you'll definitely be able to get a scholarship from any university you want. Tell me, what was your secret?"

Nagisa bit his lip as if to think really hard, but all he did was question if it was Rei's special incentive that kept him on track. He scratched the part of his head that hit the headboard and rubbed the back of his neck where the hickies were. He wondered if it was the power studying beforehand or the fact that it was every night since. "I just took a good break every time I studied!"


End file.
